Analysis of fattening ability, carcass and meat quality of heavy Tsigai lambs

Abstract

The aim of the investigation was to analyze fattening ability, carcass and consumer meat quality from purebred Tsigai heavy lambs produced by sucking their mothers and natural grazing. Carcass and meat quality characteristics of 20 heavy lambs of Tsigai sheep were recorded at the average age of 137 days. Samples of musculus longissimus thoracis et lumborum were taken for physic-chemical analysis (proteins, fat, total water content) and consumer meat quality (pH, water holding capacity, electro conductivity, colour and shear force) 48 hours after slaughter. The devices Nicolet 6700 Spectrometer, Infratec 1265, pH meter Toledo and MiniScan XE plus or Spectrometer CM 2600 were used for the analysis. Seven days after slaughter, the grilling losses and shear force of grilled meat were obtained. Relatively high variability, more than 10 %, was found for dressing percentage, weight of carcass, weight of meat in carcass, weight of valuable cuts in carcass, average daily gain and lean meat production per day. The highest variability was found for fat proportion in carcass. Linear correlation coefficient was r = -0.41 for shear force and dressing percentage. On the other hand correlation coefficient of shear force with age and weight at slaughter were almost the same r = 0.40. It means that share force was increasing with increase in slaughter age and weight but decreasing with increase in dressing percentage. Despite of limited number of analysed animals in this preliminary study, these findings indicate that dual purpose breed Tsigai in the ewe-lamb production system is able to produce heavy lambs with good meat quality. Results also demonstrate a high variability within group of purebred Tsigai animals.